Monday, August 24, 2015

Here's a preview image of Waterstones Piccadilly's special "interactive pop-up experience" that will be part of the UK launch of Anthony Horowitz's Trigger Mortis. This makes a great computer desktop background.

Click to enlarge.

The James Bond pop-up experience, "Trigger Mortis: Unlocking Bond", runs Monday, September 7 to Sunday September 13, 2015 at Waterstones Piccadilly in London. CLICK HERE for more details.

Trigger Mortis will be released on September 8, 2015 in both the U.S. and UK.

Friday, August 21, 2015

CBR (Comic Book Resources) has revealed eight variant covers for the upcoming first issue of VARGR, Dynamite's new six-part James Bond graphic novel series by Warren Ellis with art by Jason Masters. I've shared one below. You'll need to CLICK OVER TO CBR to see the others.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

It looks like Anthony Horowitz will not be doing a U.S. book tour for Trigger Mortis as originally planned. This is disappointing news, and it's going to make finding signed copies of the U.S. hardcover from Harper Collins a trick for collectors.

U.S. tours have become a rare thing for Bond authors these days. Only Charlie Higson and Jeffery Deaver have brought their Bonds to the U.S. in recent years. Horowitz had listed a section for "U.S. Events" on his official website, but that is now gone.

Horowitz will be doing a tour of the UK. You can check out the schedule here.Trigger Mortis will be released on September 8, 2015 in both the U.S. and UK.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Today we have updated information on Waterstones Piccadilly's special "interactive pop-up experience" that will be part of the UK launch of Anthony Horowitz's Trigger Mortis, starting off with a slick new poster.

TRIGGER MORTIS: UNLOCKING BOND

An interactive pop-up experience inspired by Anthony Horowitz’s new James Bond novel

To mark the publication of one of the most anticipated books of the year, an interactive pop-up experience, inspired by Anthony Horowitz's novel set in 1957, is being installed at Waterstones Piccadilly, London for one week only.

Visitors will be transported back to the late 1950s with walls, shelves and tables filled with books, artefacts, prints and memorabilia of the era

In true Bond style, unlocking secret codes and solving clues will lead customers to a secret antechamber where they will find themselves inside the pages of Trigger Mortis

An audio as well as visual experience, visitors will be able to enjoy Selma star David Oyelowo's reading of Trigger Mortis.

Produced by the team behind Les Enfants Terribles' smash-hit immersive show Alice's Adventures Underground and the creative director behind Secret Cinema's Back to the Future, TRIGGER MORTIS: UNLOCKING BOND is guaranteed to intrigue and delight.

The pop-up experience will open exclusively to ticket-holders attending the publication launch with Anthony Horowitz on Monday 7th September, tickets for which are on sale at https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-anthony-horowitz/london-piccadilly. The space will then be open to the general public from Tuesday 8th September to Sunday 13th September. Visiting the pop-up is free, however to participate in the Trigger Mortis challenge a copy of the book must be purchased.

Trigger Mortis is based in part on unpublished Ian Fleming material. It will be released on September 8, 2015 in both the U.S. and UK.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Check out this scale replica of James Bond's Saab 900 Turbo ("The Silver Beast") from the John Gardner 007 books. This sold on eBay a while back. It doesn't appear to be an official release – the Saab used here is actually a later model than what Bond drove in the books – but it's still pretty cool!

Wouldn't it be fun of IFP got together with a toy company and produced official replicas of the James Bond novels cars?

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Acclaimed British actor David Oyelowo will read the Trigger Mortisaudiobook. Oyelowo has played Henry VI for the Royal Shakespeare Company and recently portrayed Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma.

"I consider it a huge honour to be asked to narrate this wonderful book," said the actor. "Anthony Horowitz has crafted a taut thriller with a fascinating cast of characters and stunning action sequences that I am relishing bringing to life. It is an acting challenge as exciting to me as any I have faced on stage or screen. I get to play James Bond! It doesn't get much better than that."

Author Anthony Horowitz said: "What an honor to have an actor as talented as David to read my take on James Bond. He has a brilliant voice and talent for bringing out the nuances of dialogue and characters. He will do marvels with the audiobook of Trigger Mortis.”

Oyelowo follows in the footsteps of other actors who have narrated 007 novels, including Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Bonneville, Tom Hiddleston and Rosamund Pike.

The media is making much of the idea that Oyelowo is "the first black actor to play James Bond." This is not correct. Hugh Quarshie voiced Bond in the Dr No audiobook, and Paterson Joseph read SOLO as part of BBC Radio 4's book of the week.

The audiobook version of Trigger Mortis will be released on September 8 along with the hardcover and ebook. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon.co.uk.

It's unclear if Oyelowo's reading will also be used on the U.S. audiobook.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

A special edition of Trigger Mortis will be available in Waterstones bookstores in the UK. The book has a black dust jacket and according to the Waterstones website:

Includes exclusive extra content of the original outline by Bond creator, Ian Fleming, for a television episode called MURDER ON WHEELS.

The Waterstones Trigger Mortis special is available for pre-order on their website (with a nice discount at the moment). A copy will come free with a ticket to the Trigger Mortis launch event at Waterstones Piccadilly with author Anthony Horowitz on September 7th.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Bond author Anthony Horowitz will appear at Waterstones Piccadilly in London for special Trigger Mortis launch event on September 7th. Below are the details from the Waterstones website:

An Evening with Anthony Horowitz
Monday 7th September 19:30 at London - Piccadilly

Join bestselling writer Anthony Horowitz on the eve of publication of one of the most talked about books of the year. Anthony will be in conversation with BBC Radio 4's Mishal Husain, reading from Trigger Mortis and talking about the challenge of following in the footsteps of the man he considers the master - Ian Fleming. Fans will have a chance to buy the book before anyone else and get it signed by the author himself.

A ticket price of £18.99 includes a Waterstones Exclusive edition of Trigger Mortis.

I'm intrigued by the mention of a Waterstones "Exclusive edition" of Trigger Mortis. I couldn't find any details on this, but Waterstones has done some impressive exclusives in the past, such as the Red Box edition of Devil May Care. Or does "exclusive" here just mean that theirs is the only edition available a day early?

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Writer Warren Ellis has revealed that his new James Bond graphic novel VARGR will have a "cold open" featuring a duel in a building outside Helsinki. The writer told BBC Radio 5:

"I didn't want to be influenced by the films," said Ellis. "The one thing I couldn't stop myself doing was the famous Bond cold open. I had to do a Bond cold open, I just couldn't stop myself and they let me get away with it."

VARGR will be a six-issue story arc written by Ellis with art by Jason Masters. It will be the first installment of the new "James Bond 007" comic book series from Dynamite. The first issue will be released in November.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Cover art for the French Calmann-Lévy edition of Anthony Horowitz's new Bond novel Trigger Mortis (Déclic mortel) has been revealed on Amazon.fr. The cover echoes the design of the U.S. edition, but adds a nice visual reference to auto racing, a big part of the book.

It appears Trigger Mortis will be released by two different publishers in France, Calmann-Lévy and Hachette. Proof editions from Hachette show their cover design will be similar to the UK edition.Déclic mortel will be released in France on September 23, 2015.